The One Thing Naruto Wanted
by Nattefrost
Summary: Seventeen years after he defeated and sealed Kyuubi, Minato Namikaze was resurrected, and reunited with a Konoha he couldn't recognize. Three years later, he recounts the events that occurred from the moment he died, with particular focus on Naruto, who met a tragic end.
1. Chapter 1

Despite the fact that it was summer, and an awfully warm one at that - the heat making me wipe the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve – I went to the portable fireplace, which I had placed in the middle of the room, and lit a fire. Being as experienced as I, all it took was a single Tiger hand sign, a deep breath, and soon the fire was roaring in the little room, casting an orange glow on the spiderweb that hung under the plain woodened dining table, one of the chairs, and next to the fridge in the kitchen area, where there also was an oven and a sink, a single unwashed plate having been there for a long time.

This wasn't my apartment, nor had anyone else lived there for years. The original owner was Naruto, who was my son, though in blood only, as I had never known him, nor been a true father to him.

It is twenty-one years since I became the fourth Hokage, twenty since I sacrificed my life to save Konoha from Kyuubi, sealing the beast into Naruto, who, if he still lived, would also have been twenty years old.

Furthermore, it is three years since I was resurrected by the Shinigami, and allowed to live once again. But what a hollow life that has been. All of the people I had loved, Kushina, my students, Jiraya-sensei, Sandaime-sama, are all dead, and while the streets are bustling with activity, the houses full of families, the village seems to me a deserted place. The absence of Naruto in particular have stricken me.

It is amusing, that the man famous for his speed arrived too late. I was restored to life, when there no longer was a possibility to save Naruto, or even to get to know him properly.

Perhaps that is why, I come here occasionally, hoping that this place will help me understand him, the stranger that was my son, but all it does is giving more questions.

For example, I look at the chairs, and wonder if anyone besides Naruto ever sat in them - if he ever had visitors at all, which I rather doubt, knowing the reports of his early childhood.

I look at the plate in the sink, which is smeared with brown sauce, and wonder why it was abandoned like that. Was it because Naruto was a slightly lazy child, who had decided to postpone the chore of cleaning the dishes until the next day, or was it because he had been in the middle of doing exactly that, when they knocked on his door and took him away, and placing that plate in that sink was the last he did, before he opened the door and left this apartment behind forever?

I am not sure, but there is one thing I do know: I have resumed my position as Hokage, leaving thousands of citizens depending on me, and for their sake, I must put the grief behind me, and be the Hokage I have sworn to be.

That is why I have gone through all that has been said to me about Naruto, and the precious few files there are about him. I will attempt, for the very last time, to get a complete picture of Naruto, from beginning to end; what he experienced and felt and did. But above all, I wish to know where, exactly, it went wrong for him.


	2. Chapter 2

The day when Naruto left his old life behind, was when an Anbu visited him, dressed in the customary black cloak with a hood. His face was covered with a boar-mask.

He didn't knock on the door, but stood on the street, making no attempt to hide his presence; he stared very blatantly at the window in Naruto's dining room, the boy in question leaning back in a chair, licking some creamy substance from a plate.

At some point, the Anbu began to attract attention. A group of children raced past him, one of them stopping up, and whispered to his friends, pointing at the veiled person with obvious enthusiasm.

Naruto glanced out of the window, noting how empty the street looked like when it was noon: the shops were opened, but the costumers were few, and mostly women or elderly.

The only children outside were those too young to be in school, where Naruto himself should also have been back then, as he was only eleven years of age, and had not yet graduated from the Academy.

For a while now, he had avoided going to school. Actually, he had avoided everyone for weeks by then, keeping no company but himself.

His days consisted of nothing but wasting time. He would wake up hours after he should have been sitting inside a classroom, not having set the alarm-clock in the first place, then eat something, before walking aimlessly around; walking on the street and kicking a stone; standing in the shadow of a tree; plucking a few berries from a bush, taste one, then throw all of them away with a sour grimace; then wander around some more.

This was not his usual behavior. Before, his days had consisted of all the activity expected from a young boy. He was famous for his pranking: buckets above a door, peculiar objects placed on the teachers seat, the entire Hokage monument covered with paint.

But lately, a change had occurred inside him. No longer did he seek to gain attention by pranking people, or prove his worth by working hard in classes. No longer did he shout about wanting to become Hokage, or try to defeat classmates in Taijutsu, he merely stayed home, or wander around, not seeking out anyone.

It was a change I found to be sudden and odd. And when I first leafed through the reports of him, I wondered about it, and thought, what is the cause of this?

And that wasn't the only odd behavior of his. That day when he was last seen in his home, he didn't behave as I would have expected, when confronted with the Anbu standing outside his home.

At first, when he casually peered outside the window, and saw the masked individual staring at ham, he opened the window, shouted: "who the hell are you?"

The bystanders who saw this did not doubt, that this was the reaction of a boy who didn't know the Anbu or had visitors like him before. For him, this visit was unusual. The man was a stranger to him.

Without saying a word, the Anbu walked to the door. Naruto appeared a minute later, a wary look on his face.

The people in the street were slightly curious. The Anbu's where rarely seen, after all. And they wondered why one of them choose to visit that boy, and thus, they followed the exchange.

The Anbu seemed to be the one doing the talking, with Naruto mostly listening. What he said had a profound influence on the boy; his eyes widened, his face was that of disbelief, but something like pure joy had begun to show. The Anbu put a hand on the shoulder of the boy, who gave a nod, looking slightly timid.

And finally, boy and Anbu, left, walking in the direction of the city gates.

This was the second thing I found odd. That Naruto, who by all accounts did not know this man, was told something, something that filled him with joy, and chose to go with him, a complete stranger.

And that was the last time Naruto was in his apartment. He wasn't snatched or removed from his home with force. That day, when he was eleven years old, he was asked to leave.

And he accepted.


End file.
